My current 20 practical is sporting a 24" criterion 1-11 twist heavy varmint contoured barrel.
The rifle is way to barrel heavy, heavy in general and not great for use in a blind, but it puts coyote down.
I'm looking at chopping the barrel shorter, to make it easier for transport and a little lighter.
I hunt in the woods mostly and 200 yards would be a long shot for me.
No suppressor use in NY and the minimum barrel length is 16.5 inches, So I was thinking 18 inches.
With an 18" barrel, the rifles OAL would be 40.25"s and the muzzle dia would be .890"s.
According to the charts, velocity loss shouldn't be a concern with the hot 40 grn Vmax load I use.
I'm just waiting for the 11 degree barrel crown cutter with .20 cal pilot from PTG to arrive.
Any reason why I shouldn't cut it to 18"s ?

Don't know if it will help ya much...

I have a 20 inch barrel, with a heavy magnum profile on a Ruger 77 Mk2 action, chambered in a 20 Practical...

Don't think you'll see much velocity loss, if ya do, maybe a click or two on your scopes elevation will compensate for it...

and if you hand load, one thing good about a 20 Practical, is there is still bullets available on the shelves at local stores..

same in 17 caliber... that is why I am putting together a 17 Fireball also...

I have shortened a couple of mine, no big deal, I use in area's of the yardage being 150 yds or less, works for me

Short barrels are only good to 150.

Thanks for the replies.
I hand load and use 40 gr Vmax and 34 grn nosler, both going around 4,000 fps.
I'll chrono the rounds after I shorten it and see what happens.
I found an article about shortening a 20 practical barrel and it's effect on velocity.
At 17 inches, it had less velocity spread, but was loud and they stopped at 14 inches of length, because the report was unbearable.

Get it recontoured and chop it at 20”. I have found 20” to be the sweet spot for me for the smaller cases and calling rifles.

mike r

What do you consider "short barreled"?

I know a guy with a 2 or 3 inch dick... still managed to knock up his wife... several times ...

Dayum..... I only 'managed' twice.....

Shoots1000: All of my 204 Ruger Varmint & predator Rifles have barrels 26" in length - and if I could I would add a couple of inches to them!
Especially afield, I find the added weight adds stability to the sight picture and reduces their modest recoil allowing for me to often spot my own hits (and misses).Where I Hunt LONG shots (400 yards-ish) are the norm.
I vote to leave that barrel of yours at 24".
Best of luck to you what ever you decide on.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Probably not the truth, but this is my thought process as well.
I have 16" AR's but always grab a 22 incher instead, I have Varmint rifles with 28" barrels !!!!!!!
If you really are going to chop it just cut it to 22" to start with to make sure you won't hate it.

You lose 50 yards of range for every inch you chop off.

Not quite an apples to apples comparison but I have Classic Classic (sporter stock) in 223 that I had fitted with a factory 24" varmint barrel and ran into the same handling issue that the OP is having. I had it cut to 20", it does handle better but the noise level increased substantially. I would recommend cutting it to 22", if it is still too heavy then it can be cut to 20".

drover

Cut it to 21.75 like the guys at the Houston warehouse.

This.

How accurate a rifle shoots is more important to me than barrel length. I've used varmint rifles with barrel lengths from 16 to 24 inches. I actually prefer the shorter barrel rifles when I'm doing a lot of walking, or hunting in heavy cover. It all depends on where and what you're hunting. If shooting prairie dogs, where you're shooting off of a good rest, then a long barreled rifle would probably be the best choice. But, if I have to walk several miles in cold weather, wearing a lot of clothes and carrying some gear, then I want lightweight rifle.

I shoot the Remington Model 7 Predators a lot, they are 22 inch barrels. I use them more than I do anything else, mainly because they shoot so well and I just like them. I also have a couple of rifles with 20 inch barrels that I hunt with as well, and I carry a 16 inch barrel AR on occasion. I've killed stuff with all of them. To me, the barrel length is last thing I worry about.

I, personally, would go to 20" first - then if I didn't like it, I'd go down from there.
You can always cut more off - pretty tough to add it back on. Balance is the critical thing.

It's too long and heavy for the run + gun hunting I do in the woods and hills of NY.
If I shoot 200 yards, that's a long shot.
I need it lighter and shorter.
I was going to buy a shorter barrel, but this one has some mileage on it and I already went through my 2021 budget in 2020 !
Once I see how well the PTG crown cutter tool works, I'll see about chopping it off bit by bit, otherwise it's going to 18"s and I'm calling it a day.

I have a 204 Ruger barrel that is 20" long and it works really well for me. It's a semi-weight contour on my Blaser R8 and is shot primarily from the bench. I don't lose much, if any, velocity.

I shoot a truck load of coyotes every year with a 16" barreled AR-15 and a 20" 22-250.....but a shot over 200 yrds is very rare....this year went to a 12.5" on the AR-15 and a suppresser sure is nice hunting baits out of a box blind shots are 125-150 yards....

My favorite calling rifle is a 16” AR in the boring old 223.... but where I call 10-150 yards are my average ranges. I shoot 55BT’s. I wouldn’t think either you or the coyotes will know the dif of how fast your 40 vmax was going when it hits and I’m sure it’s going to be a few hundred FPS faster than my trusty AR.

Well I chopped off 8 inches of barrel, crowned and bead blasted it to a nice matte finish.
Loaded some rounds with 40 grn Vmax and made it to the range to get it sighted in just before dark.
23 grains of 4198 was the ticket for group size, but it was too dark for the chrono to get any readings.
Waited a half hour before heading into the woods and had one coming in about 20 minute later.
It ended up just staring in my direction for a half hour behind some brush about 150 yards away.
When it started to meander away, it made the mistake of going into the only small opening I had.
Dropped it at 130 yards.
Luckily it wasn't at 150 yards, or the projo would've probably bounced off of it.
I loaded another 50 rounds and am all set to see what my new short barreled rifle can take down this weekend.
SJC

Man, are you lucky....

My varmint rifles are a SAKO 222 Remington with a sporter barrel and 2 AR15s, both with 16" barrels in 5.56 NATO (223) For prairie dogs the heavy fluted match grade AR and the SAKO are best for me and both shoot under 1/2 MOA. For getting real low to the ground the SAKO is easier to use then the AR.

But for shooting varmints for hides, the king of the 3 is the light barreled AR. It's got a Weaver fixed 4X scope and a match trigger, but it's the least accurate of the 3 rifles. It will do MOA, just just MOA and sometime about 1-1/4" is what I can expect at 100 yards, depending on the ammunition I am using.

However I am nearly as fast for the 1st shot with the light AR as I am with the SAKO, and if there are multiples (as does happen not infrequently with foxes and coyotes) the light weight AR is the king. Almost no recoil so 2nd shots are REALLY fast and I don't come off the scope at all, so if I miss the 1st shot I have a correction and a 2nd on on the way in less then 1 second, and in the cases of pairs and packs there is just no comparison between the AR15 and the SAKO. I get a LOT more hides using the semi-auto.

So for varminting for money, the AR15 is probably the best tool yet invented

Here in western oklahoma I use the 16 inch AR and it is an improvement to have the fast second shot as sometime we have 5 to fifty hogs for targets. Another thing to help fast recovering on the second to maybe 20th shot is one of those slip on recoil pads and a red dot to keep both eyes open. It will become automatic to just pull the trigger if a hog is in the sights. The stocks are mostly adjustable so they are easy to fit comfortable with the recoil pads. And I am old enough that calling me a sissy don,t bother me.

Just wondering if you had any time to get this shorter barrel over a chrono? And is it so much louder for you?

I'm kinda wondering about the fireball outta the barrel after dark.....

My best calling rifle is an AR with a 16" stainless bull barrel, it's lighter and wayy handier than a 20".
And accuracy is inside 3/4" with many 55gr-65gr bullets. This is one AR upper I would not want to give up.

Haven't had a chance to get it chrono'd and since it's snowing like a bitch right now, it's not looking like I'll be able to get to the range to do it anytime soon.
I took two short videos of me shooting coyote and I didn't notice any fireballs in them or a big difference in the noise level, but that could be because I was focusing on the shot.